Thread: Basic weight reduction in VE powered B13 (some pics)

UPDATE:

Hey guys. I'm taking my 92 VVL to the dragstrip next week one more time before the season is over and doing some prep work, and I decided I'd try some weight reduction.

To start off, I have no power steering and this car NEVER had A/C (rare, never had it from the factory even in 1992 - there's no button for it in the center console) and thankfully I have no sunroof. I also do not have the OEM rear spoiler. That's gotta be saving 200 lbs right there. (I was just told the OEM B13 spoiler doesn't weigh much at all, oh well). As for wheels, I have 15" Rota Slips (I believe they are 12.6 pounds each at that size) but I do have the heavier NX brake upgrade. After I finished up my oil change and some odds and ends, I spent a couple hours removing:

EDIT: added more things I removed

1) Front passenger seat
2) Rear seats and seatbelts
3) Trunk carpeting, both bottom and sides, and the wood support
4) Spare tire and tools, and the jack with it's little support bracket
5) Floor mats and rear speaker deck
6) Roof handles and sun visors
7) Passenger mirror
8) Both ashtrays, cupholders and the little piece of plastic below the cigarette lighter
9) Glovebox door (surprisingly heavier than it looks)
10) Windshield washer reservoir (it had a leak anyway, only weighed like 3lbs though)
11) The thicker carpeting that's glued to the top of the visible carpeting. It pulls out in big sheets sort of.
12) All plastic panels (front, covering seat rails etc.)
13) ALL and I do mean ALL the sound deadening tar under the carpeting. It was in several places: A) Under the rear bottom seat - B) Under the carpeting in both the rear and front - C) Along the interior rear wheel wells (in a weird zig zagish pattern?) D) Not sure what to call it, but if you're sitting in the backseat, just about where your calves would be, it wasn't exactly tar, it was some kinda sticky stuff. Anyways, I put it all in a bag, and I came up with just a hair under 40 pounds. Not bad. And I drove the car and it wasn't any louder. (But a 3" exhaust, no cat to a straight-thru Magnaflow muffler, not a surprise)
14) I'm still waiting for a definitive answer here, but I'm debating on temporarily removing the front and rear strut tower bars. They have to weigh at least 20lbs a piece I think, the rear even heavier. I haven't gotten an answer if removing them will hinder my launch at the strip or not make a difference. If they won't make a difference, it will take me 5 minutes to remove them and pull out another 35-40lbs.

So I just went for a ride and it seems it was well worth it. Could be a little bit of the placebo effect, but I'm quite sure there is a difference. The car feels much more alive and eager to rev higher. I also have about 3/4th a tank of gas at the moment. Of course, a major drawback is the exhaust is twice as loud and there's a lot more road noise as expected.

On the dyno, before the head was port and polished in between installing a new head gasket, and before pulleys, this motor hit a max of 206whp @ 7960RPM but only 152 ft-lbs of torque. From what I understand, vehicle weight and torque have a stronger correlation than weight vs. horsepower, especially in high revving, smaller displacement engines. (I have N1 cams with S-tech valve springs and can get well past 8000RPM before fuel cut)]

(will add pics again when I have the carpeting out)


I'm not going to get all crazy by removing the dash or stereo or anything. I plan on putting everything back together in a couple weeks. I read that the front interior door panels weigh 20lbs each and behind them is a 20-25lb bar for safety, so I left those alone (just in case.). I am having my fiancé follow me to the track in her car with my tools, spare and jacks etc. and I may remove the panels and the safety bar when I'm actually a the strip and have the car weighed on the scale.

I myself weigh about 170lbs and I would be thrilled if the car weighs 1,999 lbs or less without me when all is said and done. My Altima SE-R weighs 3,400! just thought I'd share as I haven't been posting much since the new house.

i would be surprised if its under 2k

Yah, I was reading REALLY old threads (from like 2004) and people had gotten as much as 700 pounds out of their B13's.... but they looked liked a stripped car at the Junkyard. No dash board, not even a heater. Nuts. I just took out seats, carpeting, and sound tar or whatever its called. Just went for a ride before and surprisingly the exhaust is not that much louder than it was before, but more stuff is rattling around and its quite annoying. So the day after the strip I'll prob put it all back in.

you've probably taken 50-75 pounds off excluding the tar

What about fiber glass trunk and hood?

I found in the manifesto (deleted what I didn't do and left what I did):

Sound deadening material including tar and the rubber firewall blanket and steel brace under steering wheel 52lbs
A/C compressor including iron bracket and all lines and condenser 32lbs
Front seats weigh 33 pounds each.
Back seat weighs 10.5 pounds.
Carpet weighs 9 pounds.
Spare tire well weighs 14.5 pounds.
a/c parts in the dash weigh 20 pounds.
B13 SE-R wheels = 16.7 lbs!! (I have 15' Rota slips that weigh about 12.6 lbs each)
All the sound deadening weigh 48.2lbs (minus the steel bracket under steering wheel, not sure what that is yet)
Sunroof (40 pounds)
Door Beams (10 pounds each) - won't do. Too risky until I'm actually at the track.
Door Panels (20 pounds) (See above)
Air Conditioning (40 pounds)
Power Steering (8 pounds)
Interior Sound Deadening material (50 pounds)
Front Seats (35 pounds each)
Rear Bench Seat (10 pounds)
All Seat Belts (10 pounds)
compressor weighs like 25, condensor 10, exchanger 5, bracket like 3 or 4 and the associtaed lines another 5 or so

So it looks like, considering I didn't have power steering, A/C or sunroof, (or rear spoiler) I'm should be something like 240lbs lighter than a B13 that came with all those options. IDK. I can tell you that it surely feels peppier. I will remove the 2 front door panels and the bar when I actually get to the track, should be another 50lbs

That would be cool, except well, I kinda like how the car keeps a lowprofile right now.. I drive it maybe once every 2 weeks, but I like the way it looks. I'm just removing some stuff that can be put back in to see if my time improves later this week

Go to the junkyard get 2 spare doors gut them and put lexan windows in them.

What track are you going to and when you heading out? Shld get more nissans out to track.

dude ,ill tell ya from having an nx with all that and taking all ac stuff even under dash,misc braces under dash,removing powersteering,removing rubber tar sounddeaderner , no wiper fluid resivor , gutted rear hatch/backseats....

it will make a difference... trust me.i wish there were inserts for the ttops....they heavy as hell....I wish I could afford som ecf hood and the hatches with lexan


ive seen your vids...looks like it moves out nicely!